Volume 62 (2016): Edition 3 (September 2016)

This paper focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of corporate governance in banks in Poland and Slovenia between 2005 and 2013. It studies the impact of corporate governance in these banks on their performance. The results of our research show that Slovenia achieved lower average scores for the variables and indicators related to the transparency of corporate governance than Poland. The density of banks with the highest corporate governance index scores was higher in Poland than in Slovenia. When examining the impact of corporate governance on bank performance as measured with net interest income, the regression analysis showed that its impact is positive in both countries and that it is statistically significant in Slovenia.

Competition is one of the factors directly influencing the development of the banking market, the stability of the banking system, and the monetary system as a whole. This article describes the features of banking competition, methods of analysis of banking competition, and an analysis of the current state of competition in the banking market in the Russian Federation. The analysis of banking competition in the Russian Federation was performed using the concentration ratio for the top three companies and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The research concludes with an assessment of the state of competition in the banking market and identification of the barriers to entering the financial services market.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the use of payment cards in retail in the Czech Republic from the side of clients (buyers) and the side of sellers. Questionnaires for clients examine satisfaction with cards and the service connected with them. Sellers’ satisfaction with the profit and function of cards is analyzed. The data indicated that 92% of the 352 respondents in South Bohemia had a payment card and more than 35% had more than one card. In retail, 70% of sellers had a payment terminal.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) replaces causes of the current crisis by principles of accountability, transparency, ethics, and respect for organizational stakeholders, the law, international standards, and human rights (International Organization for Standardization, 2010). Interdependence and a holistic approach link them and CSR’s core contents. We examined if Slovene companies involve all seven CSR core contents of ISO 26000 (CSR to employees, customers, local community, environment, human rights, ethical behavior, and leadership). The analysis united three of them—CSR to employees, ethical behavior, and human rights—into CSR leadership to employees.

The development and usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has particularly increased in the last two decades, while at the same time showing great potential to improve the efficacy of business processes, facilitate and drive innovations, and therefore increase competitiveness. Innovation activities represent an important factor for social and economic change as well as for increasing competitive advantages at both the national and firm levels. This paper focuses on the role that ICTs play in the innovation performance of selected European countries. Using data drawn from the Eurostat and Global Competitiveness Index (2007–2011) and panel regression analysis, research results indicate that ICTs have a significant impact on business innovation activities.

The goal of the research is to investigate the hotel innovation behavior in one of the most important tourism regions of Hungary. The Lake Balaton Region is a very popular area of the country with quite a short season (from the middle of June to August 20). The region is the second most visited area based on the number of guests and guest nights in Hungary. The topic of innovation plays a growing role in the Hungarian hotel sector as well, because competition is very high and keeping guests and employees can be a great challenge. The study involved both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research aimed to identify the best practices of the Hotel Európa Fit****superior which introduced an “innovation by inspiring” strategy and applies several types of innovation in a highly recommended way. The respondents of the questionnaire included 28 hotel general managers (52% of the 54-person sample). The results showed a strong relationship between the type of the hotel and the number of innovations as well as the type of the hotel and the frequency of innovation.